


a thread of hope spun into a second chance

by mollivanders



Series: collected rebelcaptain prompt-a-thons [5]
Category: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016), Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe - Canon, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, F/M, Gen, Pre-Relationship, Undercover Missions, a bit of fluff and a bit of proper romance, but also rebel adventures!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-25
Updated: 2017-11-25
Packaged: 2019-02-06 15:37:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,143
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12820650
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mollivanders/pseuds/mollivanders
Summary: Back on Scarif, she hadn’t thought beyond the mission itself. Her mind was too jangled with nerves and failsafes to worry about anything else. For all that, when she’d realized they’d have to jump from the command station to the data tower, her first thought hadn’t been about herself.She’d been thinking abouthim, and his safety, and his survival. It was unexpected, and unfamiliar, but not unwelcome. It felt like coming home, even in the midst of battle and a war she couldn’t see the end of. Even if they failed at this, even if the Rebellion was crushed and a thousand planets were destroyed by her father’s second daughter – she wouldn’t leave him behind.More than that, she trusted him not to leave her either.(In some ways – she’d never stopped.)





	a thread of hope spun into a second chance

**Author's Note:**

  * For [jenniferjun1per](https://archiveofourown.org/users/jenniferjun1per/gifts).



> Ages ago, jenniferjuni-per gave me a kiss meme prompt for "a kiss that shouldn't have happened". I interpreted that pretty liberally; kissing in battle is dangerous? If it's good enough for Leia though, it's good enough for me ;)

“Do you think,” she gasps out as they round another corner, “we could go one mission without our luck going?”

Cassian doesn’t answer, still trying to raise K2 on the comm. As they leap through the blast doors, Jyn blasts the controls, hoping to cut off the stormtroopers on their tail. It’ll at least buy them a few seconds before Control gets the doors back open.

“You have any bright ideas for getting out of here?” she asks, panting as she keeps pace with his longer stride. His eyes are peeled for fresh assaults coming around the corner and she swings a look behind them, just in case. Clear, for now.

“K2,” Cassian says into his comm, his voice even as always, “K2, do you read me?”

+

They’d made it inside the Virujansi Base easily enough with Cassian’s longtime cover of Cassein Willix, and Jyn had managed to hack the mainframe for the intel on new Imperial mining sites without difficulty.

“Like stealing candy from a, well, - ” She’d paused. “Like stealing a blaster from a stormtrooper.”

Cassian’s mouth had _almost_ quirked in amusement but instead he’d just stepped closer, dropping his voice to a murmur. “You got it?” he’d asked, watching her slip the file up her sleeve. The anxious edge to his voice was back, a sign that they might still have trouble ahead.

 _Well, when didn’t they?_ she thought – and that’s when the alarm sounded. With a single shared look, they’d bolted for the door – and into a squadron of stormtroopers.

+

The bits of comm traffic she’s picked up since they’d started running suggested that the base was responding to an attack on the other side of the city. _Just their luck_. It could be the Alliance – or it might not be. She’d never wager hard credits on whether Rebel Command had their ducks in a row or were scrambling as much as the lowest ranked soldiers.

“Standing by, as requested,” K2 finally answers over Cassian’s comm and she hears Cassian swear under his breath in relief.

“Can you make it to Hangar Bay 12?” Cassian asks as Jyn steers him around a corner, his attention split. “Or…Docking Bay E19?” She nods in agreement and then, without warning, drops back. Stormtroopers are dropping out of the air vents, shooting at them from behind. A moment later, she feels more than sees Cassian slide into a kneel beside her, providing cover in the other direction as more ‘troopers pile through the blast doors.

“New plan!” she yells and grabs his hand, pulling him behind her as she launches them back into flight, running blind down another corridor and knocking out the last standing stormtroopers in their way.

“Where are we going?” he asks evenly and _kriff_ , how does he manage that?

“Down,” she answers, listening hard. No sound of pursuit, for now. “If we get to the deployment bay – ”

“K2 can be waiting for us,” he finishes and digs his comm out again. “Change of plans, Kay. You’re not going to like it.”

She doesn’t stop to listen to K2’s response but she catches the worried tick in the droid’s voice as Cassian nods confirmation to her. They’re heading down.

All the way down.

+

Virujansi Base stretches across a valley between two mountain peaks. The central body of the station is disguised as another set of peaks rising between them, with a bay full of TIE fighters in the belly that spans the gulf. The base’s peaks are an able defense against air raids but the exposed belly of the station presents a tactical liability but for its reinforced shield. It’s a testament to Imperial power and the forced labor that makes it possible.

With just the two of them, they don’t have near enough resources find the right terminal so Jyn can deactivate the shield, let alone make their way back to it, and they don’t have the time to call for more backup.

On the other hand, they have plenty of resources in other directions.

It’s not hard to find an empty terminal that Jyn can take advantage of, but it’s easier to _make_ one. The unconscious officer is tied up behind them, unceremoniously slumped behind some spare boxes. As Captain Cassein Willix begins to send a trail of misinformation about an approaching Rebel squadron over several different frequencies, Jyn creates a data trail that reinforces that Willix’s intelligence. In just a few minutes, they hear the first clangs of the call to arms. Adjusting their uniforms to the state of respectable Imperial officers, they step back out into the corridor.

In the wake of an actual Rebel attack, resources have been diverted from possible Rebel saboteurs to the real threat. Jyn and Cassian slowly make their way down three levels, pausing to let squadrons of ‘troopers and TIE pilots runs past them. Jyn and Cassian follow as subtly as they can, keeping pace without giving chase, and two more levels down, they locate their target. Without thinking, Jyn sucks in a breath at the sight and steals a look at Cassian.

He’s looking at her, and it’s a look she’s never seen before.

(Never but once.)

+

Back on Scarif, she hadn’t thought beyond the mission itself. Her mind was too jangled with nerves and failsafes to worry about anything else. For all that, when she’d realized they’d have to jump from the command station to the data tower, her first thought hadn’t been about herself.

She’d been thinking about _him_ , and his safety, and his survival. It was unexpected, and unfamiliar, but not unwelcome. It felt like coming home, even in the midst of battle and a war she couldn’t see the end of. Even if they failed at this, even if the Rebellion was crushed and a thousand planets were destroyed by her father’s second daughter – she wouldn’t leave him behind.

More than that, she trusted him not to leave her either.

(In some ways – she’d never stopped.)

“Come in, Kay,” Cassian says into his comm, eyes still trained on her, and she swallows down her nerves once more. An image flashes across her memory, unbidden – a stolen moment in what they thought had been their last moment – whole lifetimes ago – and hope blooms inside her.

 _Rebellions_ , he’d said, _are built on hope_.

She blinks, and focuses on the layout before her.

The deployment bay is a large rectangular port built into the bottom of the station base. The bay’s entry/exit point is fenced in with a guardrail with access to the ships on the levels above it blocked by catwalks. The catwalks stretch out like banners above the valley below and she tries not to look down too far; fails. On every side of the bay, TIE fighters of all classes sit in neat lines, waiting for their pilots to launch. It’s a scene on the edge of chaos, designed to confuse and rattle everyone in it, and she narrows her eyes, deciphering it.

Inside all that chaos – she sees the way across.

“This way,” she says quietly, keeping a, eye on pair of nearby Imperial officers. “Tell Kay to be ready or I’ll haunt him the rest of his days.” Under the watch of countless Imperials, Cassian doesn’t take her hand, but his knuckles brush against hers in reassuring contact.

“He’ll be ready,” he says, and Jyn remembers.

She trusts him.

+

They don’t climb this time, but take the lift up to the top level of the deployment bay, hoping to give K2 just a few more seconds to work with. They can’t access the catwalks directly without the right access codes but it’s not the fighters they’re after. As they move, Jyn is working with a line and hook she’d  _borrowed_ back on the base and tightening it snugly around her waist. It should hold their combined weight.

(Kriff, she _hopes_  it will.)

And honestly, she was confident it would. Cassian had skipped even more meals than she had, and they wouldn’t need it for long.

(She seriously kriffing hopes.)

“We get one shot at this,” she says as they pause on the walkway, proud of the way she controls her nerves. “Can you make the shot?” She gives him a wry look. “Your arms are longer.”

He almost laughs then, a huff of amusement that transforms his features as he takes in her rig. “I can make it,” he says, balancing the hook in his hand and testing its weight. “Just tell me where to aim.”

“The beam supporting this catwalk,” she says, pointing discretely to the second catwalk over from them. “If you get us on the beam, we’ll be far enough out to swing beyond the guardrail.” As she talks, she wraps a second line through his belt loops and around his lower body, hoping nobody else is watching too closely with all the activity below. He doesn’t say anything, eyes studying her as she checks her work, until she nods that she’s ready.

“Hang on to me,” he says at last, and _there’s that look again_. He takes out his comm one final time, their last safety check.

“Are you ready, Kay?” he asks and the confirmation from the droid sends a relieved flutter through her body. As the first TIE fighters lift off their rails and swarm to the bay doors, she hears the hum of the shield fall away, releasing the swarm of ships. It’s their cue, and she risks another look at Cassian, dragging her eyes over his features.

Quickly, efficiently, they swing their legs over the guardrail and hover on the other side of open side. Before anyone can notice or call out, she steps into the circle of his arms, ready to hold on for dear life. He’s tense in her arms, adrenaline priming for the fatal moment, and recklessly, she raises her head to brush a kiss along the edge of his jaw. He’s too damn tall to reach any higher, but when he looks at her with surprised eyes, she tightens her fists into his shirt with a smile.

“For luck,” she says, and holds tight.

In a single graceful arc, he swings the hook and line out, catching on the catwalk beam. Together, they jump out – and fall.

+

They swing in a horrible tilt, up back into the bay where a hundred blasters are pointed at them once more, and back down again. As the stormtroopers above open fire, Cassian shields her head with the same arm that he uses to point blaster fire back at them. For her part, she’s trying to control their swing, dropping their momentum so K2 can fly up close enough to extract them, and it’s a devil of a business with all the blaster fire and ships around them. TIE fighters are turning back too now but the shield gate is still open. With nobody expecting a rescue and all the Imperials assuming the Rebels had gone and botched their escape, maybe they were all just taking advantage of the target practice.

“Anytime, Kay,” she hears Cassian mutter under his breath and she swears, fumbling to ready the release. She’s holding on to Cassian with one hand and even if she sweats through every microbe of his shirt, she’s not letting go. A familiar mechanical whirr buzzes below them and the Imperials send up a whooping cheer, ready for the shuttle to take a shot and finish the Rebels off.

Instead, a modified hatch opens below them. In the blink of a second, Jyn sends up a final prayer to her parents, Saw, and every Force master she had ever heard of before hitting the release on the line. In a blinding rush, they drop, plummeting, a free fall of luck and timing and desperate hope – and collapse into a heap in the shuttle.

+

She can feel the shuttle zooming away from the station, the sound of blaster fire redirected at them in futile pursuit, and registers their escape. As Cassian rolls off of her, breathing hard and still connected by the second line, she starts laughing, leaning back on her palms and looking up at the exposed hatch.

It’s really not that big.

“Hey,” Cassian says, sprawled out next to her, still catching his breath, “what was that kiss for?”

He’s smiling, the smile he’d worn when they’d blasted out of Scarif, and the smile he’d worn in the hangar bay in the moment that had changed everything. Wearing it, or even without, he’s the most beautiful person she’s ever seen.

She lets out a final stuttering laugh, leaning over him, and releases the second line binding them together.

“I told you,” she says, her hair falling loose as his eyes drift across her face. “For luck.”

And just in case he doesn’t quite believe her – she bends down and kisses him again.

_Finis_

**Author's Note:**

> I swear, Cassian is smiling in the hangar bay scene. You can see his face from the side :D Also, always check your safety equipment. Virujansi is a known planet in AGFFA but the base is my own creation. I own nothing though; all hail the Lucasfilm.
> 
> I'm [ladytharen](http://ladytharen.tumblr.com) on Tumblr if you want to say hi.


End file.
